DESIGN. 27 



very fitting, and, perhaps, beautiful, in a habitation for man or 

 for domestic animals, is by no means fitting, and consequently 

 not beautiful, in a habitation for plants. Such, however, is the 

 force of habit and professional bias, that it is not easy to con- 

 vince architects of this truth. Structures for plants are consid- 

 ered by them no farther beautiful than as they display some- 

 thing of architectural forms, which, according to the innumerable 

 illustrations presented to us, consist of a solid opaque building ; 

 for it is an undeniable fact that what are called fine architectu- 

 ral conservatories, are designed, not for the purpose of growing or 

 exhibiting flowering plants, for they have not even the appear- 

 ance of adaptation for this purpose. One half of their entire 

 surface is obscured by pilasters, blocking-courses, cornices, projec- 

 tions, massive astragals, sash-bars, etc., until the transparent glass 

 forms only a small fraction of the surface ostensibly appropriated 

 to the transmission of light. To complete the opacity of the 

 structure, the whole is obscured or shaded one half the day by 

 the main building. There is no ideal exaggeration here ; they 

 form the grand rule in ornamental conservatories, and the 

 exceptions are few. Let us take, for example, the splendid con- 

 servatory erected by J. W. Perry, Esq., at his mansion at Brook- 

 lyn, near New York, and figured in Downing's Landscape Gar- 

 dening, which is extolled as one of the most beautiful conservato- 

 ries in the country, and with some degree of justice, for it is both 

 more beautiful and better adapted for the purpose than many 

 others to which we can allude. Yet, beautiful and fit as it may 

 be considered, there never was, and never will be, a plant grown 

 in it to perfection, nor is it possible by any species of care or 

 skill to do so in such a structure. 



We have taken the liberty of particularizing this conserva- 

 tory, because it has been made the model of various others 

 which we are acquainted with ; and we justify our allusion to it 

 on the following grounds : because the house in question has 

 been figured and commended by such an able authority, and 

 consequently been regarded as a model of perfection by many 

 who know not the difference between a structure " fit for the 

 purpose," and one merely beautiful in itself; and, moreover, 

 because we are well acquainted with the structure itself, as well 

 3* 



